April 27th, 2018 – Stan Strickland and Crew

We have had such a tough winter, it doesn’t seem like it wants to leave us alone. We have started to notice changes to our waters as bait fish like pogies are starting to show up but they are very sporadic. In addition to the beginning of this migration we are starting to see other signs our waters are changing like the appearance of fish like cobia, amberjack, barracuda, sharks, tripletail, and dolphin (Mahi Mahi). All these things happened much earlier last year, but this winter has been such a strange weather pattern. For example, we just had another cold front the last week of April! Bottom fishing inside 25 miles continues to be a challenge but you can make a great day if you grind it out. There are plenty of red snapper, as there has been for many years, but other fish that we like to catch like black sea bass, vermilion snapper, triggerfish, etc. have been a little harder to come by than usual. Outside 25 miles, bottom fishing is good for vermilion, triggers, red porgy, amberjack, and beginning May 1st, grouper season opens. We are looking forward to that. The government has announced they plan to open red snapper season potentially in July. It’s only tentative for now, but if approved by NOAA, it will run consecutive weekends on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for three consecutive weekends beginning Friday July 13th. I am accepting reservations for those days so give us a call if you’d like to get scheduled for 2018 Red Snapper Season. We will be running 4hr and 6hr trips on those days. Red snapper fishing is spectacular!